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Subscribe to RSSRussia is sending a new shipment of helicopter gunships to Syria, a move that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday could escalate the conflict "quite dramatically."
Syria already has a fleet of the Russian gunships which are armed with rockets, cannons and heavy machine guns.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is one of Russia’s main weapons customers, according to Reuters, and Moscow sold a large shipment to the country as recently as mid-May.
Russia’s business relationship with Syria has presented a problem on the U.N. Security Council, which has been seeking a unified stance in confronting the Assad regime. Russia along with China -- two of the council’s five permanent members -- has been reluctant to admonish the Syrian leader, despite the growing bloody toll in a conflict that a U.N. official said Tuesday had all the characteristics of a civil war.
The violence that has left more than 10,000 people dead since the uprising against Assad’s government began 15 months ago. Most of the dead were civilians, according to opposition groups.
It is not clear when this latest batch of attack helicopters is due to arrive in Syria and there is no indication the U.S. would attempt to intercept the shipment. Officials refused to divulge the source of the intelligence reports.
NBC's Richard Engel talks about the situation in Syria and descriptions by a top U.N. official who described "large chunks" of Syrian cities as being under the control of the anti-government rebels.
Secretary Clinton disclosed the shipment during a question-and-answer session at the Brookings Institution.
NATO chief sees parallel between Syria and the Balkans
Meantime, there is a debate as to whether Russia and China have slowed a potential U.N. military intervention in Syria.
In an online question-and-answer for The New Yorker, writer Philip Gourevitch wrote that it was unlikely that Western forces would get involved in the Syrian conflict, even if China and Russia were out of the equation. He said that China and Russia have given "someone for us to blame."
"I'm not at all sure that there's any Western appetite to go into Syria," Gourevitch said.
UN struggles for answers as Syrian truce falls apart
"When Russia and China refused to sign on to a toothless resolution condemning Assad and calling for him to step down early this year, Hillary Clinton called their action (or inaction) ‘despicable,'" Gourevitch said. “But without their resistance, we would not look more effective -- and we might look much less effective.”
Msnbc.com's Isolde Raftery contributed to this report.
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Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world
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We should be sell both sides weapons and see who is standing when the dust settles. Don't we have enough of our own problems to worry about- we can't finance every war on the planet.
Of course the make up less pant suit woman is now beating the drums of war against Syria. She is as evil and conniving a politician as is her Slick Willie husband and her fatuous boss Barry Hussein Obama Jr (if that is his name) .
She would love to see a war start about the middle of September so the mu latto could declare a national emergency and thereby cancel of delay the national election thus denying Americans the right to vote. He with her help will suspend elections and force America into a war that cannot be won and into debt from which we cannot recover.
Thus sinking into oblivion with all of the other third world nations. Anyone recall USSR turning into Russia, Uzbekistan etc.?
Hail to the pant suit woman for her diligence and deference to Alinsky (the subject of her thesis) and Obama the one who would subject us to tyranny and mediocrity.
"we" didn't want to go into Iraq but that didn't stop us.
Who's we dumb azz? Do you have a mouse in your pocket? We, if not everybody, needed to be in the Middle East to stop 1000 years of stupid extremists from taking over more weak countries. You don't hear anyone saying that Radical Islam is advancing do you Horn-green? Let me guess, you have never served in the military, you have never read a book about strategic global positioning, you know nothing about social economics, and probably are iliterate?
The whole thing is BAD, no matter how you look at it. It is pretty ridiculous to point fingers. There are atrocities going on in Syria and innocent people being killed. That is a fact. Putin is a greedy evil dictator. That is a fact. Americans should realize that we are still the beacon of hope in the world. That doesn't mean isolationism and putting your tail between your legs. It doesn't mean flushing away our resources and making Americans suffer either. There is a balance. Let's hope our political leaders can thread the needle. It is a complicated game but the one thing I know is, this is a great country we have freedoms beyond comparison and we should do the most to allow others to live free as well.
I seem to remember these very same "rebels" and "freedom fighters" that so many posters here want to support dancing in the streets, burning the American flag and chanting slogans like death to America not too long ago. These people are not our friends and should get no support from the "Great Satan", as they kindly refer to Americans. These terrorists can solve their own problems
Some of you people really haven't learned anything from history! Leaving these conflicts to run their course sounds like a grand Idea if everyone plays by the same rules. Russia, China, Iran, and many more are ready willing and able to join in on the misery if we stand idly by! Remember Bosnia? We fought in Vietnam in a useless war that nobody understood and lost 50K of our brave men and still that country is Communist! We didn't have a clear purpose (Stategy for Winning) for being there and we lost our purpose in being in the Middle East (Fight Terrorism) as well! It has to be more than just for oil or a place to advance on the Strategic Board!
Think before you speak so most don't think that you are as stupid as what comes out of your mouths! We stood by and let one group completely destroy another and it emboldens others to stretch their comfort zones or to put it another way to see if there's a new ceiling. Show weakness and the predatorbecomes the prey! Govern through diplomatic channels from a position of power! If that is exhausted then you blow them away! If we warned the Russians to not provide arms so that the conflict won't escalate and they do it anyway then send in the Stealth and blow the arms out of the water, air, and land. Make sure that they get paid for first!
It seems everybody has something to say about this. In so many words all may have contributed to my statement. I am not in favor of despots, anywhere! Although we should not puts boots into Syria, we should, through neighboring allies next to Syria, smuggle in Sting missiles to bring down those gunships Russia is sending. It's obvious that the Syrian opposition is getting effective weapons to destroy Syrian armor. The same could be done to down the gunships. This is a popular uprising and people are willing to die in fighting for their freedom. It is the minority attempting to control the majority by whatever means it deems necessary, even the slaughter of innocent people. There are enough people in the opposition willing to fight so that our presence isn't necessary, so long as the opposition is given the means with which to overcome the despot.
People keep saying we should arm the rebels. Arm who? The revolutionary council, probably. Oh, wait. They don't have one. As former national security advisor Zbigniew Brezinski noted, there are no defections from the Syrian government or military as we saw in Egypt and Libya. There has been no attempt by the opposition to organize an alternative government or develop a manifesto. This is not, by any definition, a civil war. It is an uprising, a nation-wide riot.
If the opposition would organize and show the world that its serious about governing Syria, Russia would be sending them gunships. Putin has already stated he's not 'married' to the Assad regime. But the last thing anyone wants, be it Russia or the US, is Syria to become another failed state ala Somalia.
It would have saved a lot of American lives if the French would have jumped right in back in 1776. But they needed to be sure Americans could do something more then lose for a good cause.
Sorry Syria, but that's the way it goes. I hate what's happening there, but not enough to parachute a bunch of Stinger missiles into your streets and pray the good guys win.
If anything, this is starting to look like Afghanistan 1980s. I hope everyone gets my drift. - RC
Esculate? Really? and there are two of you reporters working on this?
This is a highly misreported story in western MSM. Much of the violence is related to funding provided by the Saudis, and Qatar, and many of the opposition fighters are the same crew-type that destroyed Libya.....miscreants, murderers, paid killers, mercs, and deviants.
Some of the "massacres" rely on historic footage, of atrocities based in Iraq, and are years old.
MSNBC has done a bit better than some competitors, but most of "news" relating to this ongoing tragedy in Syria is bunk.
Webster Tarpley, at Tarpley dot net, has comprehensive coverage of this latest Anglo-American-Nato-Zio latest debacle. And, his reporting is certainly much more accurate and fair than just about anything else being put on in the western press.
it looks like mrs clinton needs a little help understanding the problem ... its actualy very simple hillary ...your left wing and the right wing have set the trend of illegaly going into other nations and picking the side that suits your needs,wants and desires and then helping kill or imprison the side you didnt choose. And now someone else does the same thing and your upset .... well maybe all of you on capital hill should take a good look at your greedy corrupt selves and learn your lesson .... glad to help clear that up for you hillary.
the sooner we get rid of assad the sooner the taliban and the other religious clerics can take over the country. the only ones who can control any of these savage people over there are religious nuts or dictators. we should always back the dictator
Just let the Saudis handle funneling weapons to the rebels.
Leave us out of it.
The U.S. should do absolutely nothing but sit back and watch Syria degenerate into civil war. Muslims who are hell bent on killing each other have less free time to kill Americans and Israelis.
Agreed This is not Americas problem OR fight!!
Unfortunately the Russians sending this shipment virtually guarantees that the US will get involved in some way. We are going back to fighting the Russians by Proxy and I think it is about to become as common as it was from the 50's to the early 90s.
The Russians are getting to the point where they want to flex some muscle and confront what they view as a weaker America now that we have been involved in so much war making over the last decade. The only good thing the wars did for the American military is give them 10 years of REAL combat training. There is no other military on the planet currently with more varied experience in all types of warfare then the US.
There is a big difference between the mostly simulated warfare that the Russians and China do as opposed to actually being in war.
I know that most people think we wont fight the Russians, and they are party right, we wont, openly anyway. It will all be done through weapons deals and 3erd party proxies and I would not be surprised if we have some weapons on the way to the rebels as I write this.
I HAVE A NEWS FLASH.. I DO NOT CARE ABOUT SYRIA!! NOT MY PROBLEM!! How about we in this country concern ourselves about OUR ISSUES AND OUR ECONOMY!!
Nice "reset." P.S.--Bill, if you went out on Hillary, no man could blame you. Hag city.
This is coming to America soon so get ready. The poor will not keep still for long.
it's not just the poor paul ...trust me.
As far as I'm concerned, let Russia arm anyone and get involved with those tribal cave dwelling idiots all they want. As long as we stay out of it instead of getting our people killed ... I'm a happy camper.
Not a single war since WWII has gotten us anything but dead Americans. Yes, its sad that they are killing people by the thousands but we can't keep on trying to save people who will only turn around and use the help we give them against us.
So ... sit back and watch the show as Russia goes down in flames when they becaome the hero on one day and the villans the next. I know ... we've been there and done that.
Egypt & Libya worked out so well for the homely Hillary and Half&Half. Apparently, she doesn't understand Putin, even after all these years. Neither one has a problem with 39,000 Mexicans ki ll ed in the past 18 months.
excellent! fully equipted gunships, excellent! All the better to eradicate the scum from the fabric of a culture.
A simple answer. Take the gun ships out with drones.
This is one reason that i dont want war hungary Romney in office. WE would have WW III already.
Here is some more news for us to read; http://www.theweeklyvice.com/ .... WTF!
surprising,even though it is the economy stupid,other than his dealings with Israel,foreign policy had been the one place pres obama has done fairly well.we are going to find out if he is more like carter or reagan.
I wonder how many nukes Russia and China will send to Iran when the time of conflict arrives in that region?
Something to think about yes?
I would say not many, if at all. China dose not have enough weapons to spread around, and Russia would likely not take the chance that those weapons would be used against it one day.
One thing is certainly correct about Putin.. He is NOT stupid.
QE137
You may be right about the Putin part, but you never know it is a possibility that could happen even if it was just a small amount of arms.
lets face it the US has a nuclear oil rich Israel, so why wouldn't Russia want an oil rich Iran?
Just saying.
QE and his magic 8 ball has spoken.
No, No, NO. I use a magic 20 sided die to come up with my stuff.